biography

In 1997 the band Timezone was founded by guitarists Torsten Wolf and Volker Trost, bassist Pablo J. Tammen and drummer Thomas Albrecht. Shortly after recording a demo, however, the band split up. But soon the lineup was completed with singer Jioti Parcharidis. In summer 1999 the Band produced another demo at Airport Studios Hannover and the bandname was changed to: Human Fortress. This demo received positive resonance in German Metal Magazines and the first labels noticed Human Fortress. In the beginning of 2000 the band contacted a few studios to produce another demo. Tommy Newton ( Victory ) was the first producer who heard the soundfiles and invite them into his studio to produce the first full lengh album. Before the recordings started the band had found drummer Apostolos „Laki“ Zaios and keyboardist Dirk Marquardt who further developed the sound of the band.

So the Lord of Earth and Heavens Heir was recorded, mixed and mastered by Tommy Newton in his Area 51 studios. After producing the CD Human Fortress entered a talent contest sponsored by a popular German metal magazine. Their song „The Dragons Lair“ was released on a compilation CD for the contest and was subsequently voted „Favorite Track“ by online fans. Due to this recognition the band reached a deal with Limb Records, and released their debut album Lord of Earth and Heavens Heir.

The band’s second album Defenders of the Crown was released in 2003 ( also recorded, mixed and mastered by Tommy Newton ), this time on Massacre Records. The recording process included guest performances by members of the bands Galloglass, King Leoric and Meridian Zero.

After release the band played at Wacken Open Air 2003 and was voted to the second best band of the Open Air – directly behind Slayer – which was a great honour at this time. After the show guitarist Volker Trost left the band due to family issues. In 2005 the band played more concerts in Germany and was invited to play a headliner show England.

In 2008 the band recorded their third – more modern orientated – album Eternal Empire with a changed lineup.

In 2009 Laki Zaios brought the band together again and they announced that Jioti Parcharidis, Torsten Wolf, Volker Trost and Apostolos „Laki“ Zaios, reinforced by newcomer Dirk Liehm, would continue as Human Fortress in the style of the first two albums. At this time the songs Wasted Years, Dark Knight and Raided Land were written. In 2012 Gus Monsanto became Human Fortress new singer, and the band signed with AFM Records. Just before starting the recordings for the new album Bass player André Hort ( ex Rough Silk ) joined the band. They did the recordings for the album themselves except the vocals were recorded at RMB Studios in Duisburg with Michael Bormann who did some backing vocals as well. For the mix and mastering of this album Human Fortress won Sebastian – Seeb – Levermann from Orden Ogan. The fourth CD, Raided Land, was released in late 2013. After this album the fans noticed that Human Fortress are back in their old style and send them lots of positive resonance so that they decided to continue working directly after release.

The band began recording their fifth album in July 2015. A crowd funding project was started to fund the recording of the album and Human Fortress decided to record the vocals with Sebastian – Seeb – Levermann at his Greenman Studios Arnsberg this time. Seeb produced and mixed the Thieves of the Night album. The mastering was done by Dennis Köhne.

In late 2015 the song Cruel Fantasy was released on the MelodicRock.com sampler by Andrew McNeice.

In March 2016 Thieves of the Night is released in Europe, Russia and USA.

In late April 2016 Massacre re released the Defenders of the Crown album. Especially for this re release the band re recorded two unreleased songs of the Defenders of the Crown era with former singer Jioti Parcharidis who will quit his career after the recordings due to health problems.